The Italian American Podcast

In this week's episode of Updates from Italy with Patrick O'Boyle, we talk to Giuseppe Aloi of SIT Italy , the travel company he founded in 1999 that focuses in particular on the beauties and treasures that Southern Italy has to offer, focusing on art, culture, and special events. Giuseppe tells listeners about what he thinks the future will hold for the post-COVID-19 Italian tourism industry, inc...

What have you been doing doing your time in "lockdown"? We here at the Italian American Podcast have been doing what we do best-- working on being as unabashedly Italian American as possible!  Seeing as a big part of the Italian American identity is drawing from the interactions we have with friends, family and fellow paesani , more than two months in isolation have forced us to find some pretty i...

As Italy reopens its doors, we at The Italian American Podcast wanted to showcase just how much our Madre Patria has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, in this new bonus segment of the Podcast, our co-host—and walking encyclopedia of Italian Americana—Professor Patrick O'Boyle is taking a deeper look into how life has changed in Italy and what that means for all of us as a result. I...

In this week's episode, we're wrapping up our two-part look at the Northern Italian impact on Italian American life by Italy by criss-crossing these great United States to discover Northern Italian enclaves from California to Idaho and everywhere in between! Our special guest, and Northern Italy expert, Robert Allegrini, takes us on a tour across the country, stopping in various Northern Italian c...

We tend to focus a lot on our Southern Italian roots here at the Italian American Podcast, but today we're asking..."What's up North?" This week's episode is the first in a two-part series featuring special guest and Northern Italy expert Robert Allegrini, the honorary consul of San Marino in Chicago, where we will dig into a history of the contributions, communities and characters of the Italian...

What are the ties that bind us together? In this week's episode, we celebrate the launch of IAP co-host Dolores Alfieri Taranto's new Podcast, "Bella Figura—The Tradition of Living Beautifully." "Bella Figura" is the tradition of presenting oneself well to the world and, as Dolores explains, this concept doesn't just speak to Italian Americans, but to everyone of any ethnic and cultural background...

What listeners can expect as we move to a new podcast platform! You should not notice a difference in your experience, except there might be more ads. 

In times like these, our rituals are what keep us connected to "normal" life. In this week's episode, Elisabeth Cardiello of Caffè Unimatic and Brave Conversations Over Coffee shows us how this ubiquitous beverage can have rippling effects in our homes and in our communities. Elisabeth shares her trade secrets on what kinds of coffee to try and the different types of brewing that will make a world...

Tired of scraping the bottom of the streaming barrel for something to take your mind off of weeks stuck in the house? Well… SNAP OUT OF IT, because the Italian American Podcast is bringing you our inaugural "Italian American Podcast Movie Watch-Along!" We'll be sitting down to watch the classics of Italian American film, and we're inviting you to watch along with us!  Just pop in your DVD or fire...

Have the weeks of quarantine got you a little stir crazy?  Well, it's time to… SNAP OUT OF IT, because the Italian American Podcast is bringing you a little something extra this week! Welcome to our inaugural Italian American Podcast Movie Watch-Along! In this new offering, we'll take the classics of Italian American film and present them to you with our own running commentary. To celebrate the la...

Buona Pasquetta Everybody!!!  Today is Easter Monday or "Little Easter"... a day that, in Italy, represents a chance to celebrate the arrival of the Easter Season with friends and family, picnics and parties, and a second go at the leftover delicacies that every Italian family makes with pride in preparation for Easter Sunday.   And speaking of those countless confections, in this week's episode,...

How are all our Paesani out there holding up in quarantine?  Is everyone keeping busy? Got enough to eat?  What's in your stockpile?  If you're Italian, you've probably been preparing for a quarantine your whole life without even knowing it!  In light of the current COVID-19 crisis, this week's episode will introduce the new normal here at the Italian American Podcast... a remote recording that wi...

Discovering your past lays out a road map for your future! In this week's episode, we'll prove that while reconstructing your family history might take effort, the rewards are priceless!  Podcast co-host Anthony Fasano asked the gang to get together to share their first-hand experiences discovering family history, and how seeking out and finding his own Italian relatives changed his life, as well...

If any language proves that there's room at the linguistic table for everyone... it's Italian! This week, we continue our examination of the languages of Italy as we take a closer look at her many Regional Languages and Dialects, including the unique blend of Italian and English spoken by Italian Americans through the generations. We'll discus the state of Italy's diverse Regional Languages, both...

It's often said that language is the living history of a people, and the Italian language has had a very exciting life! In this week's episode, we dive into the history of the Italian language, from its Latin roots to its standardization straight through to its evolution into the languages of Italy's 100 million person diaspora. Our team also discusses the complex relationship between standard "Fl...

 Welcome to Italy—we're open for business. That's the message Allison Scola wants to share in this episode of The Italian American Podcast. With Coronavirus spreading throughout Italy and the world, we sit down with Scola, the founder, owner, and curator of Experience Sicily and the New York Cannoli Crawl (and 2019 New York Times Travel Show Expert) to get her thoughts on traveling to Italy in the...

 What IS America without pasta?  Without prosciutto?  Or parmigiano??  In this episode, we'll ask those very questions when we're joined by former Congressman Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania, the new Chairman of the American Italian Food Coalition (AIFC), a consortium of over 450 Italian companies seeking to protect Italian pasta, coffee, biscuits and wafers from US's new tariff policies.   The "Prot...

It's all over but the counting! It's our final episode examining the results of our ITALIAN IDENTITY 2020 SURVEY, our amateur analysis of the present and future of the 25-million-person Italian American community. Drawing on findings from more than 1,600 respondents from throughout the nation, this final episode takes us into the traditions and trends of Italian America to understand how our cultu...

It's Part 3 of our four-part series examining the results of our ITALIAN IDENTITY 2020 SURVEY, our exploration into the hearts and minds of Italian Americans in the 21st Century. With results drawn from more than 1,600 respondents from around the USA, this episode takes us into the souls of Italian America, to understand what respondents felt were the most important touchstones of the modern Itali...

We're back with Part 2 of our multi-episode series examining the results of our ITALIAN IDENTITY 2020 SURVEY, our effort to ask the questions only we could ask of ourselves, and to understand what the Italian American community really looks like today, and what we will become in the future. With more than 1,600 respondents from around the nation chiming in, we're moving into more nuanced territory...

At the start of Italian American Heritage Month last October, we created the ITALIAN IDENTITY 2020 SURVEY, which is our effort to ask the questions only we could ask of ourselves, and to understand what the Italian American community really looks like today, and what we will become in the future. More than 1,600 passionate Italian Americans from around the country have made their voices heard, and...

From its humble origins in Newark, New Jersey, for nearly 90 years, the venerable 'Italian Tribune' has grown to become perhaps the most important English-language voice in Italian American media. We'll meet the inspiring couple who has made this multi-generational Italian family business into not just "the Paper of Record for the Italian American Community," but who has also bucked the trends of...

For 30 years Mary Ann Esposito has been a part of our lives on "Ciao Italia", American television's longest running cooking show on PBS. Undeniably, this is the First Lady of the Italian American kitchen. Yet while we all know and love this consummate educator, the Italian American Podcast is bringing you a chance to see the lady behind the lens... and to get to know the man who has been her lovin...

For years, America has gotten to know Eric Eremita as the no-nonsense builder who made hundreds of families' dream homes a reality on HGTV's "Love It Or List It" and "Brother vs. Brother". But now, we're sitting down with this proud Staten Islander to get to know a little bit more of his Italian American side. We'll discuss how this family man ended up as an internationally recognized face, learn...

A Happy Feast of the Epiphany to all of our paesani our there! Today is January 6th... La Festa dell'Epifania - which means if you were a good little Italian this year, you should have received a few extra treats in your stocking this morning courtesy of La Befana, the Italian Christmas Witch! This legendary lady flies on her broom all over Italy on the Eve of the Epiphany, sliding down chimneys t...